ARE ESPN AND MLB HEADED FOR AN IN-SEASON "DIVORCE?"

May 11, 1998

MLB and ESPN are "headed for a messy, in-season
divorce," with Turner Sports possibly "assuming custody of
ESPN's national cable TV baseball rights," according to
Sherman & Mushnick in Saturday's N.Y. POST. After ESPN
acquired the entire NFL Sunday night schedule, it announced
that it would move its September Sunday night MLB games to
ESPN2. But sources told Sherman & Mushnick that "if Sunday
nights in September don't include baseball on ESPN, MLB will
seek to immediately void" its six-year, $255M deal with
ESPN, which is due to expire after the '99 season. The same
sources said that MLB "has inquired as to Turner's interests
in the MLB package, an inquiry that was met with an
enthusiastic response." A Turner spokesperson declined
comment, but said that Turner "has always held a high and
active regard" for MLB (N.Y. POST, 5/9). Mushnick writes
today that an ESPN spokesperson said yesterday that the
network "is committed to maintaining its contracted
relationship with MLB in spite of a growing concern that
baseball will seek to void its contract" (N.Y. POST, 5/11).
OLBERMANN'S TAKE: In his SportsFan Radio Network
commentary, Keith Olbermann says that ESPN's "Baseball
Tonight," the "only" sports newscast permitted to show MLB
highlights of games in-progress, "is part of the network's
deal with baseball and would presumably also go away" if the
deal is voided. Olbermann also says that the "disaster for
ESPN shows how quickly one can go from buddies to enemies in
baseball, or vice versa." Olbermann: "Disney, which owns
ESPN, was the fair-haired boy. Fox, which owns the Dodgers,
was the upstart. Turner, which owns the Braves, used to be
the pariah. Now Disney and ESPN are bums, Fox, the
veterans, and Turner, the savior" (SportsFan Radio, 5/11).